92 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

This book starts off fast and doesn't let you go! In typical King fashion, there is great detail and insight into the various character's psyches. Just when you think you "get it" the story takes another turn into weird!

Not as good as his earlier stuff, but fascinating in its own right. Regular folks get enmeshed is some weird stuff while camping and find out the government is trying to hide some strange aliens that have landed. Better than it sounds.

Yet another excellent book by Stephen King. I could not put this book down. "Dreamcatcher" is the first novel Stephen King wrote, in longhand, while recuperating from his near-fatal accident.

The four friends - Joe "Beaver" Clarendon, Pete Moore, Henry Devlin and Gary Jones - are bound together in a way that they do not even suspect. Beaver is an inventive curser who owns a cabin in the Maine woods where the group gathers for the last time, Pete can find lost car keys or anything else when he puts his mind to it, Henry is a suicidal shrink who has a tendency to lash out at patients from time to time, and Jonsey is a college professor who just "knows" when students cheat on exams. The common link in their lives is Duddits (not letting that cat out of the bag - read the book). When Richard McCarthy stumbles out of the woods, dazed and confused, not to mention the worst case of flatulence in the history of civilization, the group has no idea that they are on the edge of the end of the world as we know it.

This is one of my least favorite of King's longer winded books. It's about four miserable middle aged friends who get together every year for a manly weekend spent drinking bear and shooting poor beasts. It goes on and on flashing back to the past when the boys were boyhood friends and met a Down Syndrome boy named Douglass who possesses a supernatural power and then whisking the reader back to the present when the men are facing snow, weird flashing lights and strange people passing noxious gas. Somewhere here I think aliens have landed and soon there will sh*t weasels. Ahhhh!

This book rambles on so much I feel a decade older having finally finished it. The beginning grabbed me and the parts about the boyhood friendship captured me but King lost me when he went on tangents about the aliens, the red fuzz, Mr. Grey and his mindrape & the crazed military guy all of which I found mind-numbing.

Four boys did a brave thing and it changed them forever. 25 years later after they saved a Down's syndrome kid from bullies, the four boys (now men) reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But this trip is different than the others. The four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past and in the Dreamcatcher.
Very engrossing and couldn't put it down.

I haven't really read or listened to a lot of Stephen King's stuff in years. When I was a kid, he was the best! The Stand, The Dead Zone, The Shining. But then his books started getting on my nerves. I am so glad I picked up this one. And the narrator rocks this one all the way through. But the writing is pure Stephen King at his storytelling best. He is the master storyteller and I just love the way he thinks and how his characters are so real and likeable. Even the bad guys!

This is one of those books you struggle through and when you get to the end of you're ticked off because you've spent so much time on it and you walk away unsatisfied and want to smack someone in the back of the head with the book. Not the worst of King, but definitely not up there with the best either.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and despite absolutely loathing the movie, I decided to check this book out, and I was not disappointed. It's suspenseful and eerie and a good read. Funny thing is - I decided to try the movie again after finishing the book and I hated it even more. Bad movie, great book.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan, but this tale of an invasion interrupting a bunch of guys who went out hunting did nothing for me. To be fair, I am not a fan of alien stories to begin with, but I think Stephen King is a much better writer than what this book gives us.

A snippet from Publishers Weekly that actually seemed to capture the feel of the book:

"The book has flaws, then, and each of them cries "runaway author." Is anyone editing King these days? But, then, who edited, say, Mahler at his most excessive? The genius shines through in any case, in the images and conceits that blind with brilliance, in the magnificent architecture, in the wide swaths of flat-out riveting reading and, most of all, in the wellsprings of emotions King taps as he plumbs the ties that bind his characters..."

Much better than the movie, as they always say, though the movie was a surprisingly faithful re-telling with a lot of the same spirit as the book.
This story is a prime example of King, and he does not disappoint. You can see his determination to create a world within world, exhibited by his dedication to creating phrases that sound natural in the character's speech, yet are unlike the typical phrases we repeat until they lose their impact. The friends in this story are all like pieces in a pizza, having their own edges and sizes, yet meeting in the middle to form part of something bigger.

Stephen King at his finest. I loved this book. It's full of memorable characters that you come to know well, a great plot, strong imagery - all the things he does best. Plus, it's nice and thick at 879 pgs, so you get a lot of reading for your buck. I highly recommend it.

Stephen King has put out some good work, this isn't one of them. The concept is too vague, the storyline too involved and at times convoluded. If you want some good ole' Stephen King, I would elect for "Cujo," or "Nightmares & Dreamscapes." Skip this one.

Dreamcatcher is proof that Stephen King is one of the greatest story tellers of the 20th and 21st century. His description of the characters and then intermingling them into the story plot holds your interest in the story. Not necessarily a surprise ending but he tends to add a philosophical thought to ponder. Are other States as eerie as Maine or is that a product of Stephen King's mind?

"Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. It was something that changed them in ways they could never begin the understand." As usual, King has mined TERROR from the ordinary.

Twenty-five years after saving a Down's-syndrome kid from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy-now men with separate lives and separate problems-reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But when a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky, chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past-and in the Dreamcatcher.

If you are a Stephen King fan, you know that you can't really summarize his stories in a few short sentences. In this book, four men who grew up together meet once a year for a hunting trip. This year, They are faced with a mystifying encounter with unexplained forces and events which bring them back to an event from their youth.
Good solid book, 861 pages, with a 13 page Epilogue.

This is by far my most favorite King book. He was laid up after a bad accident and this is the first book that he wrote after the accident. Please do not even bother with the movie, it is a waste of time. Suspense, aliens, para-military, telepathy... and lots and LOTS of blood. Long book, but I was absolutely RIVETED.

King is a skillful wordsmith, and he can create memorable characters and truly scary situations. Unfortunately, he also has a tendency to fall back on buckets of gore, as in the case of this novel of four friends who are bound together by their relationship with a retarded boy. The menace is invasion from outer space (or maybe the US military's response to it), and it's King's gift that he can find something new to say about UFOs and little gray men.

King definitely did not disappoint me with this book. I loved the Aliens, and the link the boys shared. I had, as was referenced in the books, Flash backs of "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" Moments through out the whole thing. I'll definitely be recommending this to other friends who are king fans. ^^

Stephen King does it again. Sheesh! I stayed up 'til 3 a.m. to finish this one; just couldn't put it down.

From back cover: ONCE UPON A TIME, IN THE HAUNTED CITY OF DERRY, FOUR BOYS STOOD TOGETHER AND DID A BRAVE THING. IT WAS SOMETHING THAT CHANGED THEM IN WAYS THEY COULD NEVER BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND.

Twenty-five years after saving a Down's-syndrome kid from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy--now men with separate lives and separate problems--reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But when a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky, chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past--and in the Dreamcatcher.

"...this novel, the first he's written since his near-fatal accident, King allows that he wrote the first draft of the book by hand. So much for the theory that it's word-processing alone that leads to logorrhea.
Yet despite its excessive length, the novel one of the most complex thematically and structurally in King's vast output dazzles and grips..." amamzon review

No lie, I tried to read this book five times and could never get past the first 100 pages, which is very, very unusual for me (I can count on one hand the number of books I've started and not finished). I'm a huge King fan normally, this one just didn't do anything for me.

Twenty-five years after saving a Downs-syndrome kid from bullies, Beav,Henry,Pete and Jonesy-now men with separate lives and separate problems-reunite in the woods of Maine for thier annual hunting trip.
But when a stranger stumbles into thier camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky, chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creture from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past-and in the Dreamcatcher.

Good book, I thought it was a slow read and could not get into it. It seemed to drag on for me. I enjoyed the movie a lot more, And I normally always like the Books better than the Movies! Not my favorite of Stephen King.

Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. Certainly a good thing, perhaps even a great thing. Something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand.
Twenty-five years later, the boys are now men with seperate lives and separate troubles. But the ties endure. Each hunting season the foursome reunite in the woods of Maine. This year, a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented, mumbling something about lights in the sky. His incoherent ravings prove to be disturbingly prescient. Before long, these men will be plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past--and in the Dreamcatcher.

Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. It was something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand.
Twenty-five years after saving a down's-syndrome boy from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy - now men with seperate lives and seperate problems - reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But when a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky, chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past-and in the Dreamcatcher.

Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. Certainly a good thing. Something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand. 25 years later, the boys are now men with separate lives and separate troubles. But the ties endure. Each hunting season the foursome reunite in the woods of Maine. This year, a stranger stumbles into camp, disoriented, mumbling something about lights in the sky. His incoherent ravings prove to be disturbingly prescient. Before long, these men will be plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past-and the Dreamcatcher.